Kaltxì, ma frapo, ulte Mipa Zìsìt Lefpom!
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2024 proves to be a happy and healthy one for us all.
We haven’t had any new vocabulary in a while, so here are some words I hope you’ll find interesting. Several of them are based on, or have been inspired by, recent submissions from the newly reconstituted Language Expansion Project. Irayo nìtxan to all the LEP members for your creative and insightful suggestions!
First some general vocabulary, in no particular order:
puwup (vin., PU.wup, inf, 12; RN: puwùp) ‘bounce’
Rum ’awlo poluwup ’rrko neto.
‘The ball bounced once and rolled away.’
Ngäzìk fwa fkol rumit aku’up peykuwup.
‘It’s hard to bounce a heavy ball.’ (That is, it’s difficult to make someone who is stubborn or inept do what you want them to.)
pam si (vin.) ‘make a sound’
Fnu! Pam si rä’ä!
‘Be quiet! Don’t make a sound!’
Utral pam awok soli krra zup.
‘The tree made a loud sound when it fell.’
vakx (n.) ‘snake’
kafi (n., KA.fi) ‘sail’
kafi si (vin., KA.fi si) ‘to sail, move by means of a sail’
Kafi si can be used metaphorically as well as literally:
Rìk aukxo mì hufwetsyìp kafi sarmi.
‘The dry leaf was sailing in the breeze.’
kafiuran (n., KA.fi.u.ran) ‘sailboat’
tayng (n.) ‘thistle-like plant (generic term)’
As we’ll see later, a number of thistle-like plants on Pandora have tayng as part of their name.
telisi (n., te.li.SI) ‘whirlwind’
Note that the stress is on the last syllable.
amay (n., a.MAY) ‘brook’
katir (n., KA.tir) ‘rainbow’
tìspaw (n., tì.SPAW) ‘belief (abstract concept)’
Tsranten tìspaw, tsranten nì’ul tìfkeytongay.
‘Belief is important, but reality is more important.’
säspaw (n., sä.SPAW) ‘belief (particular instance)’
Tsasäspaw atsleng lu lehrrap.
‘That false belief is dangerous.’
ukyom (n., UK.yom; RN: ùkyom) ‘eclipse’
This word is a compound of uk ‘shadow’ and yom ‘eat,’ from the impression that during an eclipse, a shadow is devouring a celestial object. Ukyom can be used metaphorically with si, similar to how “eclipse” can be used in English:
ukyom si (vin., UK.yom si) ‘eclipse’
Pori tsakxeyey a’aw frakemur amuiä ukyom solängi.
‘Sadly, that one mistake eclipsed all of his good deeds.’
txakrrfpìl (vtr., txa.KRR.fpìl, inf. 33) ‘consider, ponder’
The derivation of this verb should be obvious: txa(n) + krr + fpìl: to think for a long time.
Oel sämokti ngeyä txakrrfpolìl.
‘I have considered your suggestion.’
haway (n., HA.way) ‘lullaby’
From hahaw ‘sleep’ + way ‘song.’
yewla si (vin., YEW.la si) ‘disappoint’
Note that yewla si doesn’t mean to be disappointing but rather to disappoint someone else:
Omum oel futa sänui peyä ngaru yewla soli nìtxan.
‘I know that his failure disappointed you greatly.’
kemum (coll., ke.MUM; RN: kemùm) ‘I don’t know’
Ke omum has two common contractions in colloquial Na’vi. We’ve already seen komum; kemum is its equivalent. The two forms are interchangeable, just as English “it is not” contracts either to “it isn’t” or “it’s not” with no difference in usage.
Finally, let me present the Na’vi names of some amazing fauna and flora that have come to light as we’re getting to know Pandora better through the Avatar sequels and video games. Pictures of all the following creatures and plants/planimals, along with detailed descriptions, can be found in Pandorapedia. (Look them up by their English names.)
When the Na’vi name is constructed out of other meaningful elements, I’ll give the derivation briefly. If I don’t mention the derivation, it means the word is a new root with no prior associated meanings.
FAUNA
flrrtsawl (n., FLRR.tsawl) ‘sailfin goliath’
The name of this “gentle giant” is a combination of flrr ‘gentle’ + tsawl ‘large.’
kinglor (n., KING.lor) ‘kinglor’
From kìng ‘thread’ + lor ‘beautiful.’ King may have been an earlier form of kìng.
nawkx (n.) ‘bone helm rhino’
reyptswìk (n., REYP.tswìk) ‘wolf tick’
This bloodsucker’s name comes from reypay ‘blood’ + tswìk ‘suck.’
slotsyal (n., SLO.tsyal) ‘stormglider’
Named for its exceptional wingspan, a combination of sloa ‘wide’ and tsyal ‘wing.’
tslikxyu latopin (n., TSLIKX.yu LA.to.pin) ‘chamelion crawler’
From tslikx ‘crawl’ + latem ‘change’ + ’opin ‘color.’
tslikxyu tsawlak (n., TSLIKX.yu TSAW.lak) ‘scarab crawler’
Named for its prominent large shell. From tslikx ‘crawl’ + tsawl ‘large’ + lak ‘shell.’
txampam (n., TXAM.pam) ‘soundblast colossus’
Named for the very loud sounds this animal produces. Txan + pam, with nasal assimilation.
txeptsyal (n., TXEP.tsyal’ ‘coronis’
Named for its flame-like wing pattern: a “firewing.”
vekreng (n., VEK.reng) ‘cloaked panther’
winzaw (n., WIN.zaw) ‘arrow deer’
Named for its arrow-like speed: win ‘fast’ + swizaw ‘arrow.’
yoten (n., YO.ten) ‘yoten’
zakru (n., ZAK.ru) ‘zakru’
FLORA
eanfwopx (n., E.an.fwopx) ‘mist bloom’
Literally, ‘blue dust cloud.’ From ean ‘blue’ + fwopx ‘dust in the air.’
hiupwopx (n., HI.up.wopx) ‘cloud spitter’
From hiup ‘spit’ + pìwopx ‘cloud.’ We can assume the English term was based on the original Na’vi.
ko’onspul (n., KO.’on.spul) ‘sunflower gigantus’
This is a circular plant that springs up to propel whatever treads on it. From ko’on ‘circular shape’ + spule ‘propel.’
kxetsikran (n., kxe.TSIK.ran) ‘banshee’s tail’
Clearly from kxetse ‘tail’ + ikran ‘banshee.’
naritxim (n., NA.ri.txim) ‘eyethorn’
Literally, ‘eye thorn.’ Here too we can assume the English term was based on the original Na’vi.
paymaut (n., PAY.ma.ut) ‘fountain tree’
Literally, ‘liquid fruit’: pay ‘liquid’ + mauti ‘fruit.’
syep’an (n., SYEP.’an) ‘lift vine’A ‘trap vine.’ From syep ‘trap’ + ’ana ‘hanging vine.’
tarsyu (n., TAR.syu) ‘tarsyu’
From tare ‘connect’ + syulang ‘flower.’ As explained in Pandorapedia, “The Tarsyu is a giant, flowering plant with stamens that enable Na’vi of the Sarentu clan to commune with the memories of ancestors within Eywa via their neural link.”
tompatayng (n., TOM.pa.tayng) ‘rain thistle’
Clearly from tompa ‘rain’ + tayng ‘thistle-like plant.’ Another case of the English name being a translation of the original Na’vi.
txepvispxam (n., TXEP.vi.spxam) ‘sparkle pod’
From txepvi ‘spark’ + spxam ‘fungus.’
yawrwll (n., YAWR.wll) ‘feather blade’
Literally, ‘feather plant.’ From yawr ‘feather’ +’ewll ‘plant.’
yìspul (n., YÌ.spul) ‘mermaid tail’
This is a flat leaf that springs up to propel whatever treads on it. From yì ‘small flat area’ + spule ‘propel.’
I think that’s enough for now!
All my best wishes for a healthy and happy new year. Ulte Eywa ayngahu nìwotx.
Hayalovay!
Tseri oel futa ke srer lì’u alu nrrtsyal.
Ulte srake tsun pivlltxe fko san Naranawmìri oareo ukyom seri sìk.
And can one say “Naranawmìri oareo ukyom seri”?
Txana faylì’uri amip irayo nìtxan, ma Pawl!
I noticed there are a few words that seem like they should be canon, yet I cannot find primary sources for them. These include:
– Akrr (when, as one word)
– Franse (French, no nì-)
– Tsala (distal agentive sbd.)
– Tsara (distal dative sbd.)
– Tsatxan (that much, to that extent)
– Tsyungwen (Mandarin, no nì-)
– Zìsìtam (last year)
I’d like to clarify if those are canon 🙂
Also, the Uniltìtantokx: Fyao Paye Collector’s Edition Blu-Ray contains a draft script for the movie which introduces the word tsalnu, meaning “birthing pod”. Though I haven’t yet checked the entire script for other previously unknown Na’vi words yet.
If we are talking unconfirned words I’d like to add a few more (just added all words that are currently marked as “unconfirmed” in Reykunyu hrh):
– kelha’ (has been asked for in a comment and it was said to be fine, but Pawl said he would include it officially in a following post, which never happened afaik)
– tsakarem (tsahìk-in-training, from pandorapedia, I think that one has never been confirmed)
– what is the precise meaning of “tsam si”? In 2020 we were told it should definitely be in the dictionary, but Pawl stated he still needs to think about the precise meaning
– I know there were at some point unconfirmed words for “stone arch” (these giant ones we see both in the movie but also in the game) which we never got clarification for, from a mobile game I think… while playing FoP a word for these really would have been handy. I think we saw “malmok” and “ayrang”, but I cannot find them in any dictionary, not even as unconfirmed, and I am going of a random discord message I could find, so i might be mistaken.
The word “malmok” was used in the Visual Exploration book. I think “ayrang” was on one of the Na’vi translator cards at Disney World haha. I remember us all crowding together outside of Windtraders to look at it and being amazed that we had discovered a new word. I would be curious to know which of them is canon (if not both) and what the etymologies are
Oh right, how could I forget our disney trip discovery HRHN
After a month, I realized I forgot “aweykta”, an end-of-clause form of “taweyk” or “taweyka”. 😅 This has become the 60th requested clarification of this comments section.
Also si-verbs based on short forms of a word. The only non-productive ones I found are:
– Work: Kangkem si (from Tìkangkem si)
– Say hi: Kxì si (from Kaltxì si)
I sure hope these are the last missing words we find 😅
Kop ngaru mipa zìsìt lefpom, ma Pawl!
Thank you for all these new words! It looks like my first New Year’s resolution will have to be to study all of them 😀
Mipa zìsìt lefpom!
Pxaya lì’uri atxantsan irayo nìtxan.
Ah, I’ve been meaning to ask, what is the etymology of “tarsyu”? tare + syulang?
That’s what I assumed, but seeing that it wasn’t mentioned here, and that it was said that no etymology = new root I then thought maybe it’s just a coincidence
That is of course possible, but it would be a huge coincidence, IMO, calling that plant that way by accident, while it is a _flower_ that lets you _connect_ with Eywa 😛
Also, plant is ‘ewll, not just wll, kefyak?
Kxì ulte mipa zìsìt lefpom ngaru ma karyu!
I found a few more names of species in the game that we are missing the stress of/would like to confirm:
(Edit after I finished the list: Please don’t look at it now, it got far longer than expected, first celebrate the new year!)
– asipspxam (Budding Watcher)
– ekxanwll (Gateway Lily)
– hängrr (Blistering Root)
– kinamtsìng (Lantern Beetle)
– kinärung (Sentinel Fan – would that one have a u or an ù?)
– rungfwam (rungfwam, saber hog) (not from Frontiers of Pandora but from Pandora Rising, I remembered it because of the kinärung, it also never got confirmed and we never got info about stress/u/ù hrh)
– kxaylkxa (Bladehead)
– kxemì’ang (Moonscarab)
– lakwll (Rock Orchid)
– loiyokx (Shroud)
– lortsyalwll (Flamingo Orchid) (fun fact: they included this Na’vi word in the game, but don’t mention the Na’vi name “lortsyal” even though that animal is in the game and also has an entry in the guide HRHN There they just use the English)
– läkri (Stagfly Ant Hive)
– lìnghaw (Veilswarm)
– lìngpay (Buoyfish)
– mimikyun (Echo Stalker)
– nrrtsyal (Kaleidoscope Butterfly)
– pekavol (Octofin Fish)
– pxayopinspxam (Flare Lichen)
– reyknap (Bladewing Moth)
– reypayom (Shrinkspur)
– speykakatyu (Tranquility Bulb)
– stispxam (Dragon Mushroom)
– syo’tsway (Kite Manta)
– syulfwäkì (Trickster Mantis, does it have u or ù? I guess u, if the syul- comes from syulang?)
– syulì’ang (Flutterflower, same question as above)
– syìl (Meer Deer)
– teylu leslukx (Horned Teylu)
– tslikllte (Mudcrawler Fish)
– tslikxyu txumtem (Whipfang Crawler, if the txum- comes from the word “txum” – poison, then I assume it’s an ù in RN?)
– tsìktak (Whip Leaf)
– tunspxam (Blood Urchin)
– txa’laktsyìp (Coronet Snail, my new love, have you seen it? It’s so cute!)
– vakvok (Poison Breath Spore)
– wuwuk le’awtu (Lamp Lizard)
This list probably is still missing some – I also were missing four words from your list, so I’m pretty sure there are more words to be found in the game. I will add new words as I find them.
In case someone is interested in learning all of these so you can walk around in FoP naming all creatures, I made an anki deck with ingame pictures for that very reason HRHN Feel free to DM me on Discord if you are interested!
One additional questions:
– since hiup is hiùp in RN, I assume it’s then also hiùpwll?
-ta Tekre
And Tìtstewan (who actually found most of the list above, so all credit to him here!) already discovered a new word: tsawlfkio – great western tetrapteron hrh
There are some flora and fauna in the game to be discovered. 🙂
I’d would be interested about the word yawä’ which seem to mean ‘bad air’ or ‘toxic air’. It would be very helpful to have a confirmation on this word because even in the game the devs forgot the final apostrophe in some text lines while in other it’s written with apostrophe.
I typed it incorrectly, of course I mean yavä’. Definely time to sleep for me.
Someone in Lerngruppe also found “wuwuk lakpxayopin” – “Platteneidechse” (unfortunately I don#t knwo the English name)
One more: zangke, which is supposed to mean some kind of drink made from zakru milk.
Kaltxì ma Karyu Pawl! Oe sìlpey tsnì ngaru sì Tsyänur sì Palur sì Kanur liyevu mipa zìsìt lefpom!
Mipa tsaylì’uri a lu stxeli apxa irayo seiyi ayoe nìtxan!
(Small nitpick: Shouldn’t it be kìnglor instead of kinglor?)
Hayalovay!
“King may have been an earlier form of kìng.” – I guess that means some kind of sound change occured, but didn’t affect the insect name, only the word itself 😀
oops, I didn’t read, ngaytxoa
Kaltxì nìmun,
here’s a small mistake: Oel sämokti ngeyä txak**r**fpolìl.
I have to correct another mistake of my own: Kanur -> Lukanur
Ngaytxoa!
So I counted how many words we asked about the canonicity of. The number is 53! 😳 That’s enough to warrant a new Na’viteri post. The 53 words consist of:
– 7 deduced dictionary gaps (including akrr, tsala and zìsìtam)
– 1 from an old Way of Water script (tsalnu, “birthing pod”) (there will possibly be more)
– 4 words from the Way of Water Visual Dictionary (marui, tsakarem, txampaysye, Ranteng Utralti)
– 4 unconfirmed words in Reykunyu (malmok, ayrang, kelha’ and the precise meaning of tsam si. But tsakarem is a duplicate with the same meaning)
– 34 FoP words in the first list (too many to list here)
– 3 additional FoP words (tsawlfkio, yavä’ and wuwuk lakpxayopin)
For comparison, this post canonized 43 new words:
– 18 non-FoP words (including a much-needed word for eclipse! Irayo nìtxan!)
– 13 FoP fauna
– 12 FoP flora
So I think we should wait before we ask what Lo’ak was saying in Na’vi when we hear “bro” in English 😁
At least the complete u/ù list preemptively canonized 11 words, some of which we would have asked about: Anùk, Artsùt, Ta’unui, Takuk (name), tsamkùk, Utraya Mokri and zìma’uyu. As well as the short forms komùm, Tuk, palukan and palukantsyìp.
I never realized that the list actually has words that were not canon before. Some of these words are actually missing in Reykunyu x) But for some of them (Ta’unui, Takuk (the name hrh Would be interesting to know if it’s a complete homonym or if the stress is different), tsamkuk) I think we never got a stress pattern, or am I msitaken?
Anuk & Artsut I knew already, but also there stress patterns are still missing iirc
Forgot about Utraya mokri, didn’t even know that existed, but here stress of course is obvious 😀
Are you asking whether the name Takuk from the u/ù list is a homophone of takùk?
They’re asking if Takuk the name is first or second syllable stress
I forgot that it is takùk, so I though if there is a difference it would only be stress. Sorry, still haven’t learned that damn list by heart hrh Question about stress for Takuk (the name) still remains though.
I looked through the original Way of Water script last night, and here are all the previously unknown Na’vi words I found:
– *Yalna:* In one of the first scenes, Kiri suggests that Mo’at use yalna bark when healing Neteyam. The word remains unchanged to the final cut, and the original script italicizes it, just like it does with all non-English terms.
– *Nu’ung:* Aonung’s original name (at this point, it’s not canon)
– *Tsalnu:* It means birthing pod. The word shows up about 4 times in the original script but not at all in the final movie, making its canonicity questionable.
The original script also contains the Visual Dictionary words marui (which also appears in the High Camp) and Ranteng Utralti, but not tsakarem or txampaysye.
Given tsalnu was already in the list of 53 words and the name Nu’ung is no longer canon, that brings the number up to 54. Add in Tekre asking for stress patterns of 5 words, that’s *59* things to clarify.
And now for big brain time and my wildest speculation. 👀 When Spider was angry when locked in the cell, he originally shouted in Spanish, not Na’vi (thank Eywa they switched it to Na’vi). And the Na’vi line seems to mostly match the lip movements of the Spanish line in the script. Maybe it was changed after filming? 🤔
Faylì’uri akosman irayo nìtxan, ma Karyu!
Oeri uvan alu FoP leru lie a lu ‘o’ sì txanwawe nìtxan, ulte fkol lì’fyati leNa’vi solar tsatseng nìftxan a fì’u oeru teya si. Ayflltxeyuri lì’upam nìpxi tì’efumì oeyä lu txantsan ka wotx. Tsayitìl lì’fyayä nìngay liet sleyku zey keng nì’ul.
Nìvingkap: Reyptswìk, reypay + tswìk. Tarsyu, tare + syulang. Kefyak?
Mipa Zìsìt Lefpom!
Sìltsan fwa pxestxori ikranä a mì uvan amip nume, kop sìlpey oe tsnì mestxo alu Temek sì Nimun (a tsaru lu i tup ì) tivel ral mì postì azusa’u.
Ulte lì’u alu ukyom wou nìtxan, tsari poley oe.
Irayo nìtxan to everyone who commented!
Rather than answer your comments individually, let me say a few general things here.
First, thanks as always for pointing out the errors and omissions. I’ve now corrected a couple of typos and also added etymologies for reyptswìk and tarsyu, which I had forgotten to include. Your speculations about these were, of course, completely correct!
And much appreciation to everyone who put together the massive list of names and other words still to be canonized! That’s extremely useful to me. I’ll get to the 53 (!) terms on the list in subsequent posts; the organization you presented will help greatly in sorting them all out. For the flora and fauna, my plan was to wait until the relevant creatures and plants appeared on the Pandorapedia site so you could see them and read their descriptions, but I may rethink that.
Finally, it’s been more than gratifying to hear comments about how good the Na’vi is in FoP. We spent a lot of time with the actors to help them nail their Na’vi. Every one of them was extremely enthusiastic and cooperative, and strove to get the pronunciation right. I’m so glad these efforts paid off!
Eywa ayngahu nìwotx.